With these awards, major contracts for Phase – II of the Jagdishpur-Haldia and Bokaro-Dhamra Natural Gas Pipeline (JHBDPL) project, have been finalised. The prestigious 2, 655 kms long JHBDPL project, also known as the ‘Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga’ project will pass through the state of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Odisha. The project will usher industrial development in east India by supplying environmentally clean natural gas to fertilizer and power plant, refineries, steel plants and other industries. The city gas network laying activity in Varanasi and Bhubaneswar has already commenced and activities in other cities namely Patna, Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Cuttack and Kolkata will start by next month.

B C Tripathi, CMD, GAIL (India) Ltd, said, “The project activities of Phase-I is under advanced stage of construction which will supply gas to Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Patna and Barauni. Though certain hindrances are being encountered in RoU opening, GAIL is putting all out efforts to overcome the hindrances and complete the Phase-I before the scheduled completion of December 2018. With the award for pipeline to Durgapur and Jamshedpur, GAIL till date has already awarded contracts over Rs 6,000 crore covering phase I and II of the project.”

GAIL is presently executing 4,000 kms of natural gas pipeline. The 4,000 kms pipe line will cover the states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal, Kerala and Karnataka. GAIL is making huge investment in pipeline to fulfil Government’s vision of National Gas Grid. The capex of GAIL for the next financial year is expected over Rs 6,000 crore which will be a jump of more than 50 per cent of current financial year.